Molly is a maid in one of the grandest hotels around – The Regency Grand Hotel.
She needs structure to her day, she needs structure to understand how the world works and this was in the main given to her by her grandmother. Now alone in the world Molly is looking for that support elsewhere.
From looking for that support Molly finds herself a nobody in a world where she knows exactly what is going on, but perhaps doesn’t process it like the rest of us would.
When cleaning one day she finds Mr Black dead. Suddenly Molly is not a nobody anymore she is a somebody but that means she is now more at risk than ever before.
This is not a dirty hotel room, to be put back to five start cleanliness that Molly can work to, this is something else and she needs to find support from the unlikely of places and has to start trust others to help.
As the secrets of the hotel and its residents and staff come to light, Molly finds herself in a bit of bother and has to reassess the simplicity and trust she seems to see in everyone. Whilst we has readers start to see how Molly becomes embroiled in something unpleasant and the race is on to see if the truth can be found and that freedom can be achieved.
Many things intrigue me about this book – where is the hotel? You never know, it has no definite setting, no city you can name and relate to. That makes it all the more intriguing. Some of the characters names, made me chuckle – the victim Mr Black, made me think of the dead body in Cluedo (Clue in the USA). I also had no picture of Molly in my mind from the beginning to the end; was she tall or short? Thin or fat? White or Black? What was her hair colour, there were no defining features to her, which added with her surname of Grey made me think her characterisation was meant to be as she if was a nobody someone who blended into the background and was not seen. It worked well.
A book full of layers, that had me in mind of Eleanor Oliphant or The Rosie Project but was every bit unique as they are. A mix of murder mystery, social observation and a cracking good storyline!
Thank you to the publisher via netgalley for the opportunity to read this book.
The Maid is out now.
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